Restaurant review: Cravings Tapas Bistro in Ridgewood

I admit I was skeptical about Ridgewood's newest dinner spot, Cravings Tapas Bistro. First of all, the name "Cravings" makes me think of a mall food-court stand that sells limp salads and soft-serve ice cream. Second, Cravings' menu can come across as wildly unfocused. Do you want hummus or Mexican street corn? Ricotta gnocchi or a cheesesteak empanada? Tuna tartare or eggplant Parmesan?

Liquor, wine: BYO; seven wines available from Unionville Vineyards in Central Jersey ($24 to $33), plus sangria made with them ($26 for a pitcher, which includes a full bottle of wine).

Noise level: Boisterous; can grow loud when full.

Credit cards: AE, D, MC, V.

Reservations: Highly recommended; a requirement on many nights. Call at least a week in advance for weekends.

Accommodations for children: Menu.

Dress: Casual.

Early-bird specials or deals: No.

Takeout: Yes.

Parking: Street and municipal lots.

Reviewed: March 21, 2014.

About the ratings
O Poor
* Fair
** Good
***Excellent
****Outstanding
In determining ratings, each restaurant has been compared with others of the same type and level of ambition. Reviewers make at least two anonymous visits to a restaurant, and the newspaper always pays the tab.

I might have steered clear altogether but for two things: one, Cravings has a serious chef in Michael Merida, who has worked all over the globe (including at Mezza in Westwood), and two, a friend who dined shortly after the restaurant's late November opening walked out exclaiming of crowds and the absolute need for reservations.

And no wonder. As it turns out, Cravings is one of Bergen's most exciting restaurants right now — not only for the high quality of its cuisine, but also for its fun factor. It's a colorful, festive party of a restaurant with travel photos on the wall, colorful lights and rows of shiny tile, a place to unwind on a Friday night — that is, if you can actually get one of the 58 seats on a Friday night. We saw at least one party being turned away and several others lined up on the sidewalk waiting for their tables, even with reservations.

All of this started with Merida (who is partners in the restaurant with longtime Ridgewood restaurateur Marcello Czernizer) walking around Ridgewood, asking restaurant diners what they were really looking for. He found that women usually decided where to eat, and they wanted variety, smaller dishes, healthier options and a fun atmosphere. What was key: They didn't necessarily want to be tied to one cuisine or another. And Merida was game for that, having worked in Spain in a short stint at El Bulli, no less, as well as in Tokyo, London and at a number of high-profile Manhattan restaurants, including Vong, Park Avenue Café, Le Bernardin and the now-closed Mia Dona.

So he drew up a menu of small plates with big flavors. If the many options confuse you, just order the lobster sandwich ($14). A play on a lobster roll with a simple premise — "everything tastes better with a fried egg" — the buttered white toast piled with lobster and a sharp pickled onion salad, topped with a sunny-side up egg, nearly had us ordering a second one even though our table was already piled with too much food.

All of Merida's best dishes put similarly creative, fresh-flavored spins on familiar dishes. A coleslaw made of brussels sprouts and a pommery mustard dressing perked up a stack of tempura Vidalia onion rings ($10); a flatbread pizza special was layered hummus, sun-dried tomatoes, pears and goat cheese ($12); cauliflower, sweet raisins and spicy salsa verde did wonders for soft octopus ($13). The common Latin marinated skirt steak here gets flavor from a unique marinade — Worcestershire sauce, duck sauce and red wine vinegar — and in a nod to American steakhouses, it's wrapped around creamed spinach made from what Merida says is the Peter Luger recipe ($18).

Merida even improves upon a dish that was popular when he was at Mezza: ricotta gnocchi with a deceptively rich-tasting sauce that is actually made of cauliflower. Here, it gets even more flavor from a dollop of a thick sauce of braised lamb shanks ($13, or $25 for a bigger portion). The diverse selection of cured meats and cheeses — which include house-made mozzarella, Spanish jamon serrano and French saucisson — are worth ordering, if only to try the accompanying mostarda, made with mustard, orange juice and mango purée (three for $11, five for $17).

Paella ($19), one of the few other dishes offered in a larger entrée size, is quite flavorful, even if the seafood in ours was served a little stiff. Other dishes weren't as successful — Cravings' top seller, a short-rib quesadilla served with a watercress-bacon-apple salad, was oily ($12); a mussels dish with chorizo was on the salty side ($11); a chocolate bouchon dessert that looked like a work of art ended up just tasting like confusion ($9). But you can't go wrong with the churros ($6). Merida also brought two other desserts he served at Mezza — his lemon tart and the showy zeppole tree.

Servers are key to your experience — they can describe the portion sizes, so you know how much to order for how many people. However, our servers recommended up to four dishes per person, which is going to be way too much for most people. Merida says the average order is three per person, plus a shared dessert, while my friends and I felt we would have been more than happy with two each, plus a shared salad and dessert. Keep track of your dishes — on one night, several of ours were forgotten and we had to remind our server.

Other tips: Even when you make reservations, try to come early in the evening or on a weeknight so you aren't stuck on the sidewalk waiting for lingering guests to vacate their tables. And while Cravings is BYO, it does have a license to sell some wines from a Central Jersey winery, which are also used in a pitcher of sangria ($26) that may turn you into one of those lingerers.